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Recently I was blessed to travel with Go To Nations president Jerry Williamson (pictured below) and his team of pastors and ministers. He took them on a trip to Davao, Philippines for a pastors conference for church leaders who minister to the tribal people groups in Southern Philippines. Some readers may recall I have served this effort  before . On this trip we met Pastor Manuel (pictured below with his hands raised). He has an interesting history; he is a former cannibal. Now he leads a very different life as the pastor of his church among his tribe, and also as a missionary to other tribes in Southern Philippines. The tribes that were once his enemies, they are now his mission field. It is hard for me to fathom what his faith costs him. It is hard for me to fathom what sacrifices and dangers he must face as he ministers to warring tribes. Join me in prayer for Pastor Manuel, and join me by being inspired by his example.

"When I realized that men were made in God's image, I could no longer kill them and eat them."  These are the words of a tribal leader who is now a pastoring a church among his native people. Last week Go To Nations held a pastor's conference in Davao, Philippines ministering specifically to pastors and church leaders of tribal groups in Mindanao. Over 400 church leaders from 20 tribes (pictured below) were in attendance. One of the most moving parts of the conference was when several groups sang the great hymn "How Great Thou Art" in their tribal dialect. Native peoples who once practiced cannibalism are now singing praises to God, starting churches, and reaching the unreached. The team who came to minister to these church leaders was made up of pastors and missionaries from the United States, the Philippines and Latvia. This team also included GTN president Jerry Williamson and Asia-Pacific regional director Craig Kuehn (pictured below in tribal ge...

Today we had an amazing outreach at the San Isidro relocation village. Building on the continuing work of Mike and Jude Kelly and Natalie Mattes , we held a hygiene clinic for the families who live there. The message was simple, wear shoes, and stay clean by washing your hands and feet. We talked about the importance of cleanliness especially as it relates to preventing disease. After our teaching, we put this lesson to practice, and washed the kids' hands and feet. Remember Jesus did tell us to do this: [Jesus] got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” He asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ...

Our third Timothy Internship Program is over. Six former interns are now trained to be missionaries. The ten weeks is now complete. Honestly, I think I learned the most, even more than the interns. I have been trying to look at everything as a learning opportunity, especially trying to learn from my mistakes, or trying to learn from problems or challenges that arise. I learned so much in these past ten weeks. I am so thankful for these lessons. I am also thankful for this amazing opportunity to grow people, to challenge them, to inspire them, to push them, and then watch them do amazing things. Just around 280 days until the next internship--and yes, we are starting to prepare for the next one already. Images from the Internship Graduation held on Saturday:

This is what a group of world changers and history makers look like: These are the missionaries of Go To Nations here in the Philippines. Recently we gathered for our Philippine team Annual Meeting in Roxas City, Philippines, known as the "seafood capital of the Philippines." (Trust me, we enjoyed several dinners confirming this fact.) We had an amazing and inspiring time of fellowship and impartation. Most of you are aware that Chris and I are now serving Go To Nations as Philippine Team Coordinators. It is our privilege to serve this amazing team.

Every two years Calvary International along with Global Advance holds a pastor's conference in Davao, Philippines for pastors and church leaders from the tribal peoples of Mindanao. You may recall I was a part of the Calvary team in 2007 . This year we held yet another incredible conference for pastors and church leaders. Calvary missionaries Ken and Cris Sandberg have an ongoing Bible school specifically for the peoples of the tribes of Mindanao. This year there were over 500 tribal, church leaders in attendance. As with the conference in 2007, the Calvary team was made up of pastors and church leaders from the United States as well as the Calvary International President Jerry Williamson. It was an incredible time of equipping, encouraging, and ministering to these church leaders. After the conference Jerry Williamson and the pastor team traveled to Iloilo to visit our ministry at the Sonshine Center and in Iloilo.

For the past two weeks we have been ministering with a short term missions team from Capital Life Church (located in the Washington D.C. area). This church is blessed to have Bill Shuler as the senior pastor. I grew up under Pastor Bill's ministry as a student at Oral Roberts University.  During my studies there he was our campus pastor. Indeed, myself along with thousands of other ORU students are a part of Pastor Bill's growing legacy. I am a product of ORU, and much of the spiritual impact I received as a student there was a direct result of his ministry. For several years our family has been blessed to share at their church in Northern Virginia. The last time we were there they expressed an interest in sending a team to minister with us in the Philippines. So this is what we have been up to these last two weeks. We have been doing day camps throughout the Visayas, first in Guimaras and then in Roxas. Through these camps, partnering with area churches, we have been able to...

Most of you know that my recent post ( Stay Home ) was a bit of tongue in cheek. Here is how I really feel, or The Top Ten Reasons Why YOU Should Go on a Short Term Missions Trip: 10. It will get you out of your comfort zone. There is a time to move from the comfort zone into the courage zone. 9. Your heart will break. When you see poverty and dire need with your own eyes (watching it on TV does not count), your heart will be radically different, your compassion will increase. 8. Your faith will be stretched. Raising finances and then doing ministry in another country is not easy, it requires faith. Faith is like a muscle, the more you use it the bigger it gets. 7. Jesus told you to go, read Mark 16:15. 6. You are already qualified. Christ only needs you to say "YES" He will take care of the rest. 5. You will build relationships that will last a lifetime. When you do ministry side by side with other missionaries and national believers, you will share a bond that...

Jack is back! I have known Jason Branch (I call him Jack) since we were six years old. He and his family arrived this morning for their THIRD missions trip here! Not wasting any time we got right to work doing ministry at the Sonshine Center. It is always a blessing to have people come and visit, especially if they are some of our best of friends.

Top Ten Reasons You Should NOT go on a Short Term Missions Trip: 10. It will make you uncomfortable. The other side of the world is a weird place, different languages, different smells (some of them really bad). 9. There will be sorrow. When you see true poverty and dire need with your own eyes, it can be radically depressing. 8. This will not be a vacation. You have precious few vacation days at your job. Why spend them going to some poor, third world country? 7. It's not your calling, when Jesus gave the Great Commission He was not talking about you. 6. The food is weird--and you are a meat and potatoes guy. 5. Two words, JET LAG. 4. You might be moved by what you see so much so that you will want to start giving to missions and missionaries, and with the current economy can you really afford that? 3. You will be used. No one likes to be used. 2. You will probably want to do it again, and if you keep making these kinds of trips, it might ...

I found some interesting statistics here on short term missions trips. Who takes short term mission trips? 9% of American adults (only 3.5% of American adults went in the last 5 years) 11% of churchgoers 23% of evangelical Christians 12% of people ages 18-24 9% of people ages 25-43 7% of people ages 44-62 9% of people aged 63+ How do short-term mission trips affect those who go? 75% say the experience changed their life in some way 25% say it helped them become more aware of other people’s struggles 16% say it taught them more about poverty, justice, or the world 11% say it increased their compassion 9% say it enriched their faith 9% say it broadened their spiritual understanding 5% say it boosted their financial generosity In Matthew chapter 14 we read that Jesus saw the crowd and had compassion on them. There is something to be said about seeing things with your own two eyes. A person can read about missions in a newsletter (or a blog like this), or you can view a visiting missionar...

If you have been following my posts on Facebook you probably figured out that we went to the nearby island of Guimaras. We went with the YFN-IAM team to have some downtime and also do to one more camp, a day camp with around 300 kids.

Danny getting down with one of the dance teams at YFN-IAM:

Personally I am not a fan of big evanglistic events, unless they are done in partnership with local churches. What is the point of hundreds of youth getting charged up or of dozens of new believers being welcomed into God's kingdom unless those being ministered to can get plugged into a good local church for continued discipleship? It's great that we can have an incredible week long youth event, but there are still fifty-one more weeks in the year. That is why for this year's YFN-IAM event we started meeting with local churches and their pastors months and months before the event. Through the leadership of Calvary missionary Nate Shuck and Sonshine Center director, Pastor Chris Patricio, we approached local churches, offering the YFN-IAM event as a catalyst for growth for their churches and youth ministries. Our desire was to partner with churches in Iloilo so that these new believers and energized youth could maintain their commitments through the ministry of a local churc...

Last night the power of God continued to move, even though we had a brownout (power outage). Twenty one new believers were added into the family of God. Tonight is our final night and we are expecting Christ to punctuate this incredible week with a huge exclamation point. Pastor Chris shares the Good News of Christ with the hundreds who are hungry for Christ.

First of all what is YFN-IAM? It stands for Youth for the Nations-Ignite A Movement. The desire for this event and ministry is to ignite a movement among the youth here in the Philippines and eventually around the world. The YFN-IAM team is made up of graduates of Christ for the Nations Institute, a Bible school in Dallas, TX. The main thrust for the event this year has been the to partner with local churches and their youth pastors. Months before the event we started meeting with local churches and their youth ministers. It is our desire that the youth who come to this week's event, have a radical experience with a life changing God, and then these youth get plugged into a local church. Tonight was the second night of the event. The first night we had around 300 in attendance. Tonight we had 400-450. The first night twelve came forward to receive Christ. During this the second night, one of those new believers, Jason, came forward and gave his testimony. He then said a prayer for...

More preparation and perspiration. It all begins tomorrow night. Please pray.

The next big event here in Iloilo is YFN-IAM (Youth For the Nations-Ignite A Movement). This will be a major youth event to be held next week. This is the third year in a row that this team has come to conduct this youth event. It gets bigger every year. Scenes from setting up for the event--here missionary Matt Barr takes one for the team with his high wire act. We are expecting hundreds, and perhaps up to a thousand youth to come, to be blessed, and to have an encounter with Christ.

I bet you did not know that I grew up in Indiana. I was born in Indianapolis and grew up in Kokomo (nothing at all like the Beach Boys song). We are currently traveling throughout my home state, meeting with churches and fellow missionaries. The teams that came and built the playground, the kitchen, and the stage at the Sonshine Center came from this area. We have been reuniting with those missionaries, and we have also been sharing at the churches that sent them. We are being overwhelmed with blessings at every turn.